Pastoral Staff

Rev. Jirair M. Sogomian
Interim Pastor

    Rev. Jirair M. Sogomian is currently serving as Interim Pastor of Immanuel Armenian Congregational Church. Having previously served IACC as Pastor from 1976-1979, he once again accepted the call to serve our congregation in an interim capacity in 2004, upon the vacancy of the pulpit when Rev. Joe Matossian accepted the position of Minister to the AEUNA.

    Rev. Sogomian was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in August 1937. He studied at Haigazian College before transferring to the American University of Beirut and, simultaneously, the Near East School of Theology. Receiving his B.A. from Milligan College, Tennessee, in 1963, he continued his theological studies at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, from which he received his M. Div. in 1965. Rev. Sogomian has previously served at the United Armenian Calvary Congregational Church in Troy, New York (where he was ordained), the Armenian Congregational Church in Southfield, Michigan, the Armenian Martyrs’ Congregational Church in Havertown, Pennsylvania, the Wapping Community Church UCC in South Windsor, Connecticut, and the Simi Valley Congregational Church UCC. During 1975 and beyond the outbreak of the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, he was Chaplain and Professor of Religion at Haigazian College. From 2001-2003 he served as Executive Director of the AMAA. Rev. Sogomian and his wife Lorraine (née Shamlian) live in Huntington Beach. They have five children and seven grandchildren.